Missing White Labrador With Yellow Ears

Monday morning I started to unload the van, after the Turkey Trot weekend, of all the camping gear and leftover food. It was pretty early in the morning so Judah didn't have his collar on, which is normally not a big deal. However this particular morning Judah decided that while I unloaded the van, he would sneak out and see if he could find some free food or handouts in the alley. As I was unloading the van, Lyndsey woke up, so I spent a little time visiting with her since I had been gone all weekend. After a cup of coffee or two I asked Lyndsey if she new where Judah was. She had no idea, and that is when it set in, he's out.
Normally this isn't that big of a deal, a neighbor finds him, reads his collar and returns him home. This has happened twice since our San Diego House, and a handful of times at other places. This time he didn't have his collar on, so we were unsure of what could happen.
We assumed that a neighbor had to of picked him up, because no one else in the area had seen him. However, we still spent all day devastated as we searched the neighborhood calling out his name and putting out signs. We even called the local vets, making sure that he hadn't been hit by a car or dropped off, as well as the local pound. No one had any idea of his whereabouts but they all took our information just in case he showed up. Now Judah has a microchip, so we hoped that whoever had him would at least turn him in where they could scan him and see who is owners were. Our big fear was that whoever found him, would find out how sweet he is and claim him as their own. Believe it or not this apparently happens quite a bit.
We hoped that whoever picked him up would either take him to be scanned or see our signs and give us a call, but when no one called that day or night we silently began to expect the worst. Monday night was a long night, as Judah had still not returned and we had no idea where he was. We wanted to believe that he was alright, but deep down inside we didn't know what to think.
I was up around 4 am Tuesday morning and began my search again for him, as well as posting up more fliers. Lyndsey resumed the search again at 7am and began posting large poster type fliers on the busy intersections next to our house.
I finally called my dad to let him know that Judah was gone and to see if he could say something that might make me feel better, then all of the sudden Lyndsey's phone rang around 8:30 am. She was still out putting up signs so I took the call. It was a neighbor about 5 houses down the alley that found Judah cruising the alley the day before. The neighbor noticed that he had no collar on, and that it was morning rush hour, so he and his wife took Judah in so he wouldn't wander into the street. They had three male dogs of their own that befriended Judah. So while we were at home worrying about where he was, he was off playing at puppy daycare. That night apparently Judah cried all night, and the neighbors knew he had to be close to home. The next morning they saw are signs and called.
We are so glad to have him back. It is amazes me how attached we can become to our pets. We have learned allot from this incident and hope to take the necessary precautions so that this doesn't happen again. One thing we are going to do is make sure that he gets a permanent collar that does not come off anymore. If he insists on leaving the house in search of snacks, at least we can rest assured that whoever finds him will know where to bring him back to.